I have dropped my first grader off at school on several occasions, there were prisoners on school property cutting the grass and doing other work. s

students with special challenges

After High school like most 18 year old I went into college not knowing what I wanted out of life. As a result I left and joined the workforce. Now I am 29 and a single mother trying to pursue a degree in Nursing. UnfortunatelyI was told that because congress had change the rule and put a cap on the number of years you may use a pell grant I am forced to just not be able to finish college. I cannot afford to pay for it on my own so Im in a situation that seems there is no solution to. Please ask congress to lift this rule so that myself and many others like me can finish their degree.

Deborah Gist’s tenure as Rhode Island commissioner of education has been a disaster for teachers, students and parents. A recent poll of teachers commissioned by the National Education Association of Rhode Island and the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers found that 85% of teacher do not support Gist. An on-line poll by the Providence Journal showed that 79% of the more than 16,000 respondents opposed renewal of her contract. For these reasons and many more, we call on you to DUMP GIST.

This petition was made, because our chemistry teacher gave us an inadequate chemistry exam ,that jeopardized our average grades with at least 10%. *Before the exam she refused to give us similar problems ,because she didn't have time ( her exams are very unique;she is not taking exercises from any book;also we paid around 200 dollars for this course + 130 dollars for the book ). *At the end of the semester she admitted that our book is really bad even if all of our homework exercises were from this book *There was a mistake in the exam. *She didn't do with us even one single problem/exercise step-by-step - she is explaining just the idea without to do the calculations *She is never in her office during her office hours and she is never explaining with details *In the class there are people who haven't studied chemistry in the last few years ,who are working ,who have kids and who are immigrants (our mother language is not English) *On the same material when we had quizzes our grades were around 80%-100% ,now our grade on this exam is under 50 % *There are students who are paying private tutors just to keep up with this course. This problem exist since a lot of time ,but nobody had complained before that.The college administration also didn't know what is going on.I sended a letter to her ,but i still don't have a response! The same teacher will make the final exam and the chances not to pass it are also really big !! This petition is not against the teacher ,it is against her exams ,that are not based on our books! The goal of the petition is to have a chance to do the same exam with another teacher and the grades from the previous exam to be deleted!!The new exam must be made entirely from the new teacher!!

I took out a student loan in 1969. It's 2013 and I'm still paying on it. I asked the STATE OF NEW YORK if we could work a deal out, where I can pay a percentage of the balance which is about $9000. "NO YOU MUST PAY IT OFF IN ENTITRELY!" was the response I received. I'm 62 now. So the loan I took out in 1969 will not be paid off while I'm alive. There must be people in a similar situation. Even though I work in health care, shouldn't I r3eceive the same forgiveness as teacher got in the 60's and 70's?

Making sure that public funding for educational improvement is more responsible and effective. Today, much spending is made and little or no review is done to insure that recipients are made accountable for fulfilling their promises through strict post-completion reviews. Many recipients therefore learn to play successful approval routines repeatedly, while never showing real change promised. This has grave, long-term consequences that hinder our ability to prepare our children, and our nation.

As parents, educators and administrators, we object to the impact of high-stakes testing on our children, teachers, and schools. We oppose the alleged use of our children’s personal data in the private sector. We oppose the dismissal of parental consent and legal rights to refuse the use of this personal information. Measuring our students’ progress by extensive tests imposes developmentally inappropriate expectations on our young learners and limits our teachers’ ability to respond appropriately to our students’ academic needs. To succeed with such extensive tests, teachers must prioritize the test’s narrow content over the exploratory spirit of their students. We believe the curiosity for knowledge, inherent in all young children, must be nurtured and not subjected to unproven methods and mandates. Data collected through these high-stakes tests does not reflect the truth about student progress; rather, it spreads distortion throughout the curriculum, damaging a teacher’s ability to do his or her best work. To judge a teacher by this measure is an extreme disservice to his or her life’s work. The curriculum aligned with these tests was not received at the start of the school year. Our students were expected to demonstrate achievement in these new standards without a learning curve. The scale of this testing makes it impossible to obtain the results until after the school year has ended, rendering its value to our teachers useless. Assessment tools, in the form of tests, will always be a part of public education. However, the curriculum and tests have been changing every year, creating confusion and frustration rather than clarity and accountability. Teachers will be evaluated on student progress as measured by these unproven tests. There is no credible evidence that test scores are an accurate measurement of teacher effectiveness. Yet, they will be held accountable, and 40% of their evaluations will reflect these scores. The classroom is a dynamic place, the test a very narrow window into a child’s understanding. Good teachers are able to draw out abilities and support areas of weakness, while moving the entire class forward. We value our teachers’ ability to uncover the unique path to each student’s heart and mind. To rank children based on their test scores goes against the progressive beliefs of parents and educators that the “whole child” must learn to be a productive citizen of the world. It does not measure the very elements of this generation of children such as their civic mindedness, emotional intelligence, social intelligence, or critical thinking skills. To this end, I call for a moratorium in my loudest voter’s voice!

Our school has been effected co-location by elected public officials who have sign off in agreement of co-locating a failing school into our existing building. They claim that we have space in our building to hold an additional 60-80 students. Our general population which holds 768 students, can hold up to 818 students, elected officials approved this co-location proposal on 4/17/2013 without warning or giving parents, who have children waiting on an existing waiting priority over the in coming school effective as of 9/2013. It is not only happening in Brooklyn, each borough is being affected by co-locations of schools and parents should have a voice in their children's education. Folks who do not have children in the school system, should not have a voice for what is good for them. Parents get on board with your child's education, they will only be left behind if we, as parents of a new generation don't stand up for them.

I am a single mother who raised her two children all alone. They both graduated from University of Florida; each received two degrees with honors. Though both had bright future scholarships, but the living and other expenses such as extracurricular fees at UF became too expensive. They both have a loan that is accumulating because of an interest rate of 6.8%. I was able to refinance my home when I lost my job, but my children are unable to refinance their student loan with lower rates. This isn’t fair; Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation to give students the same deal that we give the banks. This isn’t fair; Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation to give students the same deal that we give the banks. Let’s support her

On July 1, 2013 any college student taking out a new, federally subsidized student loan will pay an interest rate of 6.8%; that is double the 3.4% interest rate students now pay and more than 9 times the rates big banks pay for their loans. Senator Warren’s bill would reduce student loan interest rates to 0.75%, the same level the Federal Reserve offers to big banks. US students already hold more than $1 trillion in student loan debt and the amount of student loan debt for students under age 25 has doubled in less than a decade, from $10,649 in 2003 to $20,326 in 2012. Average student loan debt for New Mexico students is in line with national averages – between $22,000 & $25,000 per student. New Mexico’s student loan delinquency rate, however, was 14.1% in the first quarter of 2012 – seventh highest among states. Students at New Mexico’s top universities have also seen their tuitions increase by over 120% during the last 15 years.

Big banks pay a rock-bottom interest rate of 0.75 percent on loans from the Federal Reserve. That's in comparison to student loan rates, which are set to double to 6.8 percent this summer. The same big banks that were responsible for our nation's financial collapse are being rewarded by the Federal Reserve, while students who want to invest in themselves are being punished. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has introduced The Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act to help address this inequality and make it easier for students to pay for college. Sign the petition now and stand with Senator Warren.